Ronald Koeman believes his Southampton players understand the club's decision to sell its top talents and has vowed to bring in replacements who are of equal quality or better than those who have left.

Gone: Rickie Lambert moved to boyhood club Liverpool for £4million this summer

Farewell: England eft-back Luke Shaw moved to Manchester United for £30million

Staying put: Lovren (centre) wants to go to Liverpool but Koeman does not want anymore out-goings

'That
message is important because one thing is to say we are ambiitous, it
is another thing to be ambitious and we need some more time in this
pre-season to show that to the players.

'The
rest of the players have to keep that ambition. I spoke to some of the
more experienced players like Jose Fonte and Steven Davis because they
have to keep that positivity in the dressing room.

'I promised them and I promise the fans that when we start the season we will have a very good team.'

The
summer sales may not be over yet. Defender Dejan Lovren continues to be
heavily linked with a move to Liverpool while midfielder Morgan
Schneiderlin is also reported to be attracting interest from the likes
of Tottenham and Arsenal.

Keen: Koeman insists there have been no bids for French midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin and he wants to keep him

All smiles: New Saints boss Koeman was in good spirits during his first press conference in charge

Koeman
is keen to hang on to the best players that remain and believes the
board have adopted a tougher stance since selling Lambert, Lallana and
Shaw.

'We said "Okay, this
is it, we are not a selling club". The players have contracts. We don't
sell any more players and we will try keep to that,' Koeman said.

'We
sold three players - that's good enough. That's good enough money. Now
we will keep the rest and we will continue with what we did last season.

'That's what came out of last year - a great season and they played wonderful games.

'I know Liverpool have a lot of money and they will spend that money and maybe they want to buy a player from Southampton.

But as manager of Southampton I have to do everything to keep those players. The final decision is with the board.'